Can We Really Get Sensible Gun Safety Laws?

The President had a presser unveiling potential Gun Safety Laws and Regulation. Have we finally passed a threshold where we can finally deal with the proliferation of killing machines without hearing the gun fetishists whine about their inability to maintain an arsenal worthy of a military installation that worries police and citizens alike? Will we get a dialogue and not some kind of right wing hate fest? Probably, not … but we’re moving towards restricting some of the worst abuses of some people’s idea of the second amendment.

At a White House event at noon, Mr. Obama announced plans to introduce legislation by next week that includes a ban on assault weapons, limits on high-capacity magazines, expanded background checks for gun purchases and new gun trafficking laws to crack down on the spread of weapons across the country.

He also promised to act without Congressional approval to increase the enforcement of existing gun laws and improve the flow of information among federal agencies to keep guns out of the hands of criminals and others who shouldn’t have them.

The announcement was the culmination of a monthlong process that began after the massacre of 20 children at an elementary school in Newtown, Conn. In the wake of the shootings, Mr. Obama pledged action, but it was not immediately clear how far he was willing to go in the face of intense political opposition.

Wednesday’s announcement reflected a decision by the White House to seize on public outrage to challenge the political power of the National Rifle Association and other forces that have successfully fought new gun laws for decades.

The president vowed to fight hard for the new gun laws, saying that the country’s leaders are compelled to act by the tragedies of gun deaths across the country.

“In the days ahead, I intend to use whatever weight this office holds to make them a reality,” he said. “If there’s even one life that can be saved, then we’ve got an obligation to try.”

Mr. Obama opened his call for new gun laws by quoting from some of the letters he received from children — several of whom were sitting in the audience at the White House — urging him to take action on gun violence.

“This is our first task as a society,” Mr. Obama said. “Keeping our children safe. This is how we will be judged. And their voices should compel us to change.”

Speaking before Obama, Vice President Biden said “we have a moral obligation” to diminish the prospect that tragedies such as last month’s massacre in an elementary school in Connecticut could happen again.

“I have no illusions about what we’re up against,” Biden said. But he added: “The world has changed, and it’s demanding action.”

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.) said his panel would begin examining gun-control measures in two weeks. “In our hearings, we will ensure an open forum for a constructive discussion about how we can better protect our communities from mass shootings, while respecting the fundamental right to bear arms recognized by the Supreme Court,” he said in a statement. “As President Obama has made clear, no single step can end this kind of violence. But the fact that we cannot do everything that could help should not paralyze us from doing anything that can help.”

LaPierre accused Vice President Biden of lying when he said there would be an open discussion before the administration developed its plan to restrict access to certain weapons and clips.

“The NRA sat in on a White House meeting that was sold to the public as an ‘open discussion’ about how to improve school safety.” LaPierre wrote. “But that was a dirty lie. They didn’t listen to gun owners’ concerns…they didn’t consider any real solutions on how we can keep our kids safe. Instead Barack Obama, Joe Biden and their gun ban allies in Congress only want to BLAME you, VILIFY you, BULLY you, and STRIP you of your Second Amendment freedoms.”

LaPierre warned his members about Obama’s plan, saying: “Right now, they’re steamrolling ahead with legislation that would ban your guns, register your ammunition purchases and even force you to register the firearms you already own with Obama’s anti-gun bureaucrats.”

No one has yet told me why people need military style weapons in their homes or lives. It’s ridiculous. It’s like children being told they can’t have a bb gun because they’ll shoot their eye out–in this case they’re likely to kill themselves or have some one else killed by accident–and that just makes them want the dangerous toys even more. Look! It’s coming right at us!!!!

Every fringe nut case there is will be screaming about these initiatives. Let them scream, he was going to have to bulldoze over them no matter what was proposed. They were gonna bring even more crazy anyway.

I’ve also never understood why anyone would accept the argument that it’s people – not guns – that kill people. We’ll always have mental illness to some degree in our society. So why have more and more and more and more guns? That doesn’t cure mental illness or even plain homicidal rage. It can only make death by guns more likely.

One thing to always remember, it’s a lot cleaner and easier to pull a trigger and kill someone at a distance than to do it up close with a knife or a club. It’s a completely different thing with, unfortunately, the same result. Without guns, homicides in the US wouldn’t disappear but they would fall so far it would seem like they did.

Slate’s Dave Weigel helpfully has listed the 23 Executive Orders issued by the president today in connection with his initiative on gun violence. Let us put them all through the helpful NRA Tyranny Translator and see what we get, OK?

(Sure. The CDC will declare gun violence a disease and we’ll all have to get vaccinated and then we’ll all get autism and the UN will control our minds.)

Wait, I think I’ve read this at few blogs we know about and try to ignore … he forget to add and its all Obama’s fault and you’re a racist for bringing it up … I think this is a direct quote from Princess Dumbass of the North

(First they came for the insane, and I said nothing, because I was not insane. Then, they came for the felons, and I said nothing, because I was not a felon. Then they came for the Christians in my town…wait, maybe I am insane.)

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